Deputies Kill 2 Men as Drug Investigation Unravels

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies shot and killed two men in a drug investigation gone awry Tuesday night, officials said.

The 8:25 p.m. shooting occurred near 17th Street and Grand Avenue, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Dick Faust said. The names of the two slain men and the deputies involved in the shooting were not immediately released.

Six men and one woman were arrested in connection with the incident and were being held in the Santa Ana Police Department’s jail.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Stoneman said narcotic officers had spent two days following a group of men they suspected of being drug dealers. On Tuesday afternoon deputies followed two cars from Los Angeles, getting off the Santa Ana Freeway at 17th Street.

Deputies watched the men wait in the cars behind a gas station on Grand Avenue. About 8 p.m., a truck drove up and someone from the truck confronted the people in the cars, Stoneman said.

A man in the truck drew a semiautomatic weapon, Stoneman said. Deputies, all wearing jackets that identified them as Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, pulled in.

The gunman began shooting at the occupants of the cars and the deputies, Stoneman said. Deputies returned fire, killing the suspected gunman, he said. One suspect ran away and was also shot to death, Stoneman said.